The Blue Fox (8 page)

Please send my regards to your mother. I hope she likes the blend: thyme, dropwort, lady’s bedstraw and birch leaf. Let me know if you require more, there’s plenty of choice in Iceland’s natural pharmacy.

Farewell for now, my dearest Brynjulfsson, may good luck follow you – ad urnam.

Your affectionate friend and confidant on the limits of ‘the habitable world’,

Fridrik B.

Post scriptum: again, please forgive me for such a dreary letter. I promise to do better next time, when I shall make sure to have a drop first! (The enclosed picture is by Solvi; it apparently shows the Devil shoving the highly esteemed Governor up his a--e.)

Au revoir!

F.